Common Schedules

Expression	Description	Try
* * * * *	Every minute	Try
/5 * * *	Every 5 minutes	Try
0 * * * *	Every hour (on the hour)	Try
0 9 * * *	Every day at 9:00 AM	Try
0 9 * * 1-5	Weekdays at 9:00 AM	Try
0 0 * * 0	Every Sunday at midnight	Try
0 0 1 * *	First of every month at midnight	Try
0 0 1 1 *	January 1st yearly at midnight	Try

Step Values

Expression	Description	Try
/15 * * *	Every 15 minutes	Try
/30 * * *	Every 30 minutes	Try
0 /2 * *	Every 2 hours	Try
0 9-17 * * 1-5	Business hours weekdays (9 AM–5 PM)	Try
0 0 /7 *	Every 7 days (weekly at midnight)	Try
/15 9-17 * 1-5	Every 15 min during business hours	Try
0 9-17/2 * * *	Every 2 hours from 9 AM to 5 PM	Try

Ranges & Lists

Expression	Description	Try
0 8,12,18 * * *	Three times a day (8 AM, noon, 6 PM)	Try
0 9 * * 1,3,5	Mon, Wed, Fri at 9:00 AM	Try
30 23 L * *	Last day of month at 23:30	Try
0 0 1,15 * *	1st and 15th of every month	Try
30 6 * * 1,3,5	6:30 AM on Mon, Wed, Fri	Try
0 12 15 * *	Noon on the 15th of every month	Try
0 0 * 6-8 *	Midnight every day in June, July, August	Try
0 0 * 1,4,7,10 *	Midnight on the 1st of quarterly months	Try

Common Cron Jobs

Expression	Description	Try
0 2 * * *	Daily backup at 2:00 AM	Try
0 0 * * 1	Every Monday at midnight	Try
0 6 * * *	Daily at 6:00 AM	Try
0 0 * * 0,6	Weekends at midnight	Try
0 9,17 * * 1-5	9 AM and 5 PM on weekdays	Try
0 23 * * *	Nightly at 11:00 PM	Try
5 4 * * 0	Weekly report — Sunday at 4:05 AM	Try
0 4 1 * *	Monthly cleanup — 1st at 4:00 AM	Try

Cron Expression Reference

Cron Format Overview

bash

# Cron expression format:
# ┌───────────── minute (0–59)
# │ ┌───────────── hour (0–23)
# │ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1–31)
# │ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1–12)
# │ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (0–6, Sun=0)
# │ │ │ │ │
# * * * * *

# Every minute
* * * * *

# Every 5 minutes
*/5 * * * *

# At 9:00 AM on weekdays
0 9 * * 1-5

# First of every month at midnight
0 0 1 * *

Field Definitions

Position	Field	Allowed Values	Special Characters
1	Minute	0 – 59	* , - /
2	Hour	0 – 23	* , - /
3	Day of Month	1 – 31	* , - / ? L W
4	Month	1 – 12	* , - / (or Jan–Dec names)
5	Day of Week	0 – 6	* , - / ? L # (0 and 7 = Sunday)

Special Characters

Character	Name	Supported In	Description
*	Wildcard	All fields	Match any value. * in minute = every minute.
,	List	All fields	Enumerate specific values. 1,15,30 in minute = at those exact minutes.
-	Range	All fields	Inclusive range. 9-17 in hour = from 9:00 to 17:00.
/	Step	All fields	Step through values. */5 = every 5 units. 10-50/10 = 10, 20, 30, 40, 50.
?	No value	DOM / DOW	Used when you specify DOM or DOW but not both. Not in standard Unix cron.
L	Last	DOM / DOW	L in DOM = last day of month. 5L in DOW = last Friday. Quartz only.
W	Weekday	DOM	Nearest weekday to given day. 15W = nearest weekday to 15th. Quartz only.
#	Nth day	DOW	Nth occurrence of day. 5#3 = 3rd Friday. Quartz only.

Step and Range Examples

bash

# Step values with /
*/5  * * * *   # Every 5 minutes (0, 5, 10, ..., 55)
*/15 * * * *   # Every 15 minutes (0, 15, 30, 45)
0 */2 * * *    # Every 2 hours (0:00, 2:00, 4:00, ...)
0 9-17/2 * * * # Every 2 hours from 9 AM to 5 PM

# Range examples with -
0 9-17 * * *   # Every hour from 9 AM to 5 PM
0 0 * * 1-5    # Midnight on weekdays
0 0 * 6-8 *    # Midnight every day in Jun, Jul, Aug

List Examples

bash

# List values with ,
0 9,12,18 * * *      # At 9:00, 12:00, 18:00 every day
30 6 * * 1,3,5       # 6:30 AM on Mon, Wed, Fri
0 0 1,15 * *         # Midnight on the 1st and 15th of each month
0 0 * 1,4,7,10 *     # Midnight on the 1st day of quarterly months

@Alias Shortcuts

Alias	Equivalent	When It Runs
@yearly / @annually	0 0 1 1 *	January 1st at midnight, once per year
@monthly	0 0 1 * *	1st day of every month at midnight
@weekly	0 0 * * 0	Every Sunday at midnight
@daily / @midnight	0 0 * * *	Every day at midnight (00:00)
@hourly	0 * * * *	Every hour at the start of the hour (:00)
@reboot	(special)	Once at system startup — not supported everywhere

Common Examples

Expression	Description
* * * * *	Every minute
/5 * * *	Every 5 minutes
/15 * * *	Every 15 minutes
/30 * * *	Every 30 minutes
0 * * * *	Every hour at :00
0 9 * * *	Every day at 9:00 AM
0 9 * * 1-5	Every weekday at 9:00 AM
0 9,17 * * 1-5	At 9 AM and 5 PM on weekdays
/15 9-17 * 1-5	Every 15 min during business hours (weekdays)
0 0 * * 0	Every Sunday at midnight
0 0 1 * *	1st of every month at midnight
0 0 1 1 *	January 1st at midnight (yearly)
0 0 * * 1	Every Monday at midnight
30 6 * * 1,3,5	6:30 AM on Mon, Wed, Fri
0 12 15 * *	Noon on the 15th of every month
0 2 * * *	Every day at 2:00 AM (common for backups)
0 0 * 6-8 *	Midnight every day in June, July, August
0 0 1,15 * *	Midnight on the 1st and 15th of each month
@daily	Every day at midnight (alias for 0 0 * * *)
@weekly	Every Sunday at midnight (alias for 0 0 * * 0)

Month and Day Name Abbreviations

Number	Month
1	January (Jan)
2	February (Feb)
3	March (Mar)
4	April (Apr)
5	May
6	June (Jun)
7	July (Jul)
8	August (Aug)
9	September (Sep)
10	October (Oct)
11	November (Nov)
12	December (Dec)

Number	Day
0 or 7	Sunday (Sun)
1	Monday (Mon)
2	Tuesday (Tue)
3	Wednesday (Wed)
4	Thursday (Thu)
5	Friday (Fri)
6	Saturday (Sat)

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Wrong	Correct	Explanation
0-indexed day of week	1 = Sunday	0 = Sunday	Days of week start at 0 (Sunday). Monday is 1, Saturday is 6.
1-indexed month	0 = January	1 = January	Months are 1-indexed. January = 1, December = 12.
DOM + DOW OR logic	Expects AND	Uses OR	If both DOM and DOW are specified, cron fires when EITHER matches, not both.
Minimum interval	Seconds	Minutes	Standard cron minimum granularity is 1 minute. Use systemd or another tool for sub-minute.
Year field	Adding 6th field	Use 5 fields	Standard cron has 5 fields. Some systems (Quartz) add a seconds field at position 1 or a year field at position 6.
Timezone	Assuming local time	Check server TZ	Cron runs in the server's timezone (often UTC in cloud environments). Set TZ explicitly if needed.

Cron in Different Systems

System	Fields	Notes
Unix/Linux cron	5 (min hr dom mon dow)	Standard — no seconds field, no year field
Vixie cron	5	Most common Unix cron daemon; supports @aliases
Quartz Scheduler	6–7 (sec min hr dom mon dow [year])	Java scheduler — adds seconds and optional year
AWS EventBridge	6 (min hr dom mon dow year)	Adds year field; uses ? for no-value in dom/dow
Kubernetes CronJob	5 (standard)	Standard 5-field cron; no seconds field; TZ via .spec.timeZone
GitHub Actions	5 (standard)	Minimum interval is every 5 minutes; no @aliases
systemd timers	Calendar events	Different syntax: OnCalendar=*:0/5 for every 5 min

Frequently Asked Questions

Linux cron uses 5 fields (minute, hour, dom, month, dow). Quartz Scheduler (Java) uses 6–7 fields adding a seconds field at the beginning and an optional year field at the end. The day-of-week values also differ: Quartz uses 1–7 where 1=Sunday, while Linux cron uses 0–6 or 0–7 where 0=Sunday.

Standard cron runs in the system timezone. In Linux, you can prefix the crontab entry with CRON_TZ=America/New_York (supported by Vixie cron and systemd). In Kubernetes, use .spec.timeZone in your CronJob spec. In AWS EventBridge, you can specify the timezone in the schedule expression.

The ? character is not supported by standard Unix cron — it is a Quartz Scheduler extension. It means 'no specific value' and is used in day-of-month or day-of-week to avoid conflict when you specify one but not the other. AWS EventBridge also supports ?.

Use: 30 9 * * 1-5 — this runs at 9:30 AM (minute=30, hour=9) every day from Monday (1) through Friday (5).

No — standard Unix cron has a minimum granularity of 1 minute. For sub-minute scheduling, use systemd timers (OnCalendar=*:*:0/30 for every 30 seconds), Quartz Scheduler with the seconds field, or a background loop in your application code.

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